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playground:test_page_1 [2009/05/20 18:27]
mfoldy
playground:test_page_1 [2019/01/07 17:20] (current)
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-===== Course Proposal-391D ===== +
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-=== **Advanced Honors Seminar** === +
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-InstructorM. Foldy +
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-**//TitleThe Intellectual’s Dilemna: Self, Society, Worldview: Episode 1: Oscar  Wilde//** +
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-It was the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset who said, “I am myself and my circumstances”—putting in a nutshell the classic existentialist position ​“Myself” refers to one’s personal history and the influence of one’s parents, friends, and teachers. ​  “My circumstances” can be interpreted in the immediate, personal sense or on the world-historical level, and can also, of course, incorporate both together. ​  Self, circumstances,​ essences, personal histories, destiny—all these affect how we live our lives and help explain why we do the things we do.  It might be stating the obvious to observe that we live now in a crazy, mixed-up postmodern world, where the values of previous generations have been turned upon their heads, and where even the concept of “reality” must constantly be qualified. ​  Crazy times, indeed, in a sink or swim world. ​ Yet, that’s the way we roll today. +
-But perhaps you will be surprised to discover that you are not the first generation to feel that way, like you are living your life on shifting sands, in uncertain and incomprehensible times. ​ Indeed, looking at it historically it is probably hard to find a generation in the last 200 years that did not feel that way.    We won’t go quite that far back in this course; only to England in the 1890s, where we will focus on the person and work of Oscar Wilde. ​ One theme of the course is the role of the intellectual in society: what are his or her responsibilities,​ if any? If responsibilities exist, how can they best be fulfilled? ​ What are the dangers? ​ Another theme of the course is a bit more generic, but perhaps more riveting: human behavior, with special attention to ethics, attitudes, motivation, and commitments. ​  And of course we will look at some specific examples of self and circumstances. ​  Oscar Wilde posits a unique world-view and a different set of problems which engages the individual. ​   He also illustrates a different way of coming to grips with the world, with society, with the powers that be and with those powers that want to be.  Your responsibility as students is to bring your own self and circumstances to bear in your reading and analysis of these works. ​ The work you put in will be its own reward. ​   Our text will be __The Portable Oscar Wilde__, and in it we will read several short pieces, //The Critic as Artist//, //The Soul of Man under Socialism//,​ and Wilde’s prison memoir, __De Profundis__. ​ We will also watch a film version of one of Wilde’s plays, __The Importance of Being Earnest__. +
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- --- //​[[mfoldy@library.umass.edu|Primary contact: Mike Foldy]] 2009/05/20 14:25//+
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